.A former U.S. paratrooper and also stone performer apprehended in Russia more than a year back on medicine fees was penalized to thirteen years in prison on Thursday, the Moscow court body's press company stated.Michael Travis Leake, who overlooked the Moscow-based rock band Lovi Noch, was actually confined in June 2023 after district attorneys indicted him of "coordinating a medication dealing service including young people.".Moscow's Khamovnitchesky Courthouse located him bad of crimes connected to the purchase of illegal drugs, the courthouse's media solution mentioned in a blog post on Telegram. He was actually penalized to thirteen years in a maximum-security prison nest.Leake was jailed along with Veronika Grabanchuk, one more defendant sentenced of medicine costs. Her association to Leake was actually certainly not right away clear.Arrests of USA people in Russia have actually raised in the last few years, in what Washington sees as a Kremlin scheme to get the release of Russians pronounced guilty abroad.Among other American consumers held in Russian prisons are actually previous marines Robert Gilman and also Paul Whelan, along with writers Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva.